Imagine the irony of mailing a paper check in a paper envelope… to plant trees. Heh, just kidding.

Either way, I’m glad for the opportunity to post something about them (thanks Jim). Note, I just contribute, and am not involved directly.

Child’s Play is a charity set up by gamers that sends toys and games to sick kids in over 60 hospitals worldwide (that number grows every year).

They are interesting in several ways;
1. You donate to the hospital of your choice. Chances are they have one local to you. I go for Children’s Hospital here in DC, since it’s local to me. +1 for local.

2. Overhead is ZERO in most cases, low in others. Every November, when the drive starts, each hospital sets up an Amazon wish list with dozens and dozens of items.

Everything from video game consoles & games to coloring books, crafts, etc. You find the hospital you want to give to through their website, purchase whatever you can afford from their Amazon list (some items are very inexpensive), and have it shipped directly to the hospital. +1 for zero admin costs.

Apparently if you donate cash directly there is some overhead/Admin. 2-3% used for shipping items to the hospitals. I’ve never gone that route, preferring to select the actual gifts & games the children will receive. More than once I’ve had an “Aha, my son and I loved that game, add that!” moment. It’s a lot of fun.

3. It works! Some of the items are kept in the Hospitals from then on, and used by any kids there. Imagine you are a sick child in the hospital, going between scared & bored, and the nurse wheels in an Xbox or Playstation and some games for you. How cool. Other “one shot” gifts are given to the children over the holidays, and they get to keep them (books, crafts, etc).

I know it works because a soccer teammate of my son was hospitalized last year for a hernia. Had to have an operation. In talking with his Dad, it turned out just as expected. The boy was there, bored & a little scared, when the game cart got wheeled in…

Anyway, maybe they aren’t changing the world, but they are putting smiles on the faces of sick children, it makes me happy to contribute to that, and I know that 100% of what I give ends up where it’s supposed to.

They have an About page here:
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/about.php

Doug

a. money in the collection plate they pass around?

b. Special cause, IE “we’re raising money to send bibles to Zimbabwe / support our missionaries” or whatever, so put money in this special envelope?

c. Special cause, raising money for the soup kitchen / shelter we run or support?

I’ve got to say, that if you answer a or b, you are not giving to charity. You are either throwing money at what happens to be your own religious organization, or actively supporting people trying to spread your own religious beliefs further.

That’s not charity. That’s a self-sustaining tax-free organization, that perhaps does some actual charity on the side, possibly with strings attached (”listen to this sermon while you eat”), possibly not.

Just my $0.02.

Doug

That having been said, we have given for years to the Russian Children’s Welfare Society and will give again this year. They do great work with some of the most helpless and hopeless kids in Russia, orphans. Since I lived and worked in Russia for years and my wife emigrated from the Soviet Union when she was younger, we are both understand the terrible plight of Russian orphans.

In January 2009, National Domestic Violence Hotline published a study showing that there is a link between financial stress and domestic violence. Now more than ever we need to support this organization, because the recession is only making things tougher for these women.